What's shocking isn't that the Indians are failing to draw much more than 20,000 for a weeknight game against the Baltimore Orioles.

It's that on Monday and Tuesday — during the final 30 contests of the year, as the team is within striking distance of the Tampa Bay Rays for the second wild-card berth in the American League — the Tribe played before an average crowd of 12,491.

Tuesday's friends-and-family gathering of 9,962 was the smallest September crowd in Progressive Field history.

It's also part of a trend that is picking up steam, even as the Indians have remained in the postseason hunt: If it's not a weekend game, the Tribe will be fortunate to draw 17,000 fans.

The Indians have played 38 home games on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays this season.

The average attendance on those dates is 17,134.

Take away the home opener, which occurred on a Monday, and the Monday-Thursday norm is 16,474 for 37 contests.

Eighteen of the 38 Monday-Thursday home games have resulted in a crowd of 15,020 (the attendance figure for Monday's series opener against Baltimore) or fewer.

The Indians have drawn 20,000 or more on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday 11 times. The total includes the home opener, four crucial August games against the Tigers (a four-game sweep by Detroit that further damaged the Indians' hopes of keeping the fans' interest), July 3 (pre-holiday fireworks!), another matchup against the Tigers (July 8) and a May 13 contest against the Yankees.

The remaining 13 home games aren't big draws, either.

Following Wednesday's series finale against the Orioles, the Tribe has home dates against the Mets (three weekend games, the first two of which should do fairly well from an attendance standpoint), the Royals, Astros and White Sox.

That's a schedule that can only be boosted by a tight postseason race.

The Indians — who trail the Rays by 3½ games, the Yankees by one and the Orioles by a half-game in the competition for the final postseason berth in the AL — have that going for them.

But they've been in the hunt all season.

And — unless it's a weekend date with fireworks and/or dollar dogs, or a weeknight game against the Tigers or Yankees — it doesn't seem to matter.

Wired? Not exactly

Twelve of the NFL's 31 stadiums (the Jets and Giants share MetLife Stadium) are fully wired for Wi-Fi, according to CNN.

The dozen: MetLife, the Georgia Dome, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, Sun Life Stadium in Miami, the Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, the Cardinals' University of Phoenix Stadium, Ford Field in Detroit, Gillette Stadium (home of the Patriots) and Soldier Field in Chicago.

Patriots president Jonathan Kraft, co-chair of the NFL's digital media committee, told CNN he hopes every NFL stadium will be fully wired by 2015.

The team believes fans at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday will benefit from a new Verizon cell tower, along with an upgraded AT&T tower.

“We'll look at Wi-Fi as well,” Browns president Alec Scheiner said during the July 29 news conference at training camp in Berea. “I don't know the technology that well, but I do know that cells and Wi-Fi can play off each other, and we'll see what kind of success we have with the cell towers before we add more technology.”

When I asked Scheiner after the press conference about the NFL's push to have every stadium fully equipped for Wi-Fi in future years, he said, “If we need Wi-Fi for fans to have the kind of connectivity they want, then we'll have Wi-Fi.”

It's a big expense, but one every team needs to make to ensure that game day is as attractive of an option as possible.

Otherwise, the vast majority of fans will prefer to stay home, watch the Browns game on a huge HD TV, check the Red Zone Channel and/or Sunday Ticket during commercial breaks and monitor their fantasy teams and Twitter on their phones.

No parking, no lines or costly concession purchases, and plenty of food and beer.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information, analysis and a celebration should the Tribe-Orioles game draw 20,000 fans tonight.

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